Standings

The graphics next to each team are called “sparklines.” They depict each team’s performance over the last month. Each “up” bar is a victory and a “down” bar is a loss. There are horizontal lines for home games and red bars represent games decided by two runs or less. “PWins” is short for Projected Wins, based on each team’s Run Differential, and is often a better measure of a team’s true strength. Other team graphs and stats can be found on our Team Page.

Game of the Day

The Twins own a share of first place for the first time all year after beating the Royals, 2-1 in 10 innings. The Royals were leading, 1-0 with two out in the bottom of the ninth, when Joe Mauer hit a game-tying home run into the left-field seats. The next inning, Jason Barlett hit a bases-loaded single to win it for the Twinkies. Detroit lost their game to Toronto, 8-6.

The Royals’ Luke Hudson had held Minnesota scoreless for seven innings, and Brad Radke pitched five fine innings for the first-place Twins. According to Elias, this is the latest point in a season that a team reached first place for the first time. The previous record was held by the 1964 Cardinals, who gained a share of the top spot for the first time following their 158th game.

Yesterday’s Home Runs

The following stats are provided by Hit Tracker, which logs the projected distance of each home run (if it were to land uninterrupted at field level) and its “standard” distance, which is corrected for weather conditions. You can read their daily updates at the Hit Tracker Blog.

Player News

The New York Mets learned Thursday that Pedro Martinez is done for the year with a torn tendon in his left calf muscle. While surgery won’t be necessary, there’s no chance of the three-time Cy Young Award winner pitching again in 2006, even if the Mets make it all the way to the World Series. Martinez returned to New York after getting knocked around badly in his final start of the regular season Wednesday night, a 13-1 loss to the Braves. An MRI showed a tear in the left calf — different from the right calf injury that recently put him on the disabled list for a month and was thought to be his major concern.

Daniel Cabrera fell two outs shy of the sixth no-hitter in Baltimore franchise history before settling for a 7-1 win over the Yankees. New York’s Robinson Cano, who stands second in the American League’s batting race, broke up the no-hitter with one out in the ninth inning. One pitch later, Cabrera coaxed a game-ending double play. Fourteen of Cabrera’s 27 outs came on ground balls, and six more came on fly balls. He also got five strikeouts, one popup and one line drive. Cabrera was the fourth pitcher to take a no-hitter into the ninth inning this month, joining Anibal Sanchez (who got his no-hit game), Chris Young and Ramon Ortiz.

Frank Robinson reportedly won’t be returning as the Nationals’ manager. Nationals president Stan Kasten and general manager Jim Bowden met separately with Frank Robinson on Thursday afternoon to discuss the manager’s future. Baseball sources said that Robinson, 71, will not manage the team after the 2006 season. Even Robinson strongly hinted in his pregame press briefing that Sunday’s game will be his last as Nationals manager. An official announcement will not be made until Sunday afternoon’s game against the Mets or on Monday morning.

Rookie James Loney, filling in for the injured Nomar Garciaparra at first base, drove in nine runs through the first six innings of the Dodgers-Rockies game on Thursday, tying the 56-year-old franchise single-game record held by Gil Hodges. Loney slugged a second-inning grand slam, doubled in two runs in the third inning, singled in a run in the fifth inning and lined a two-run homer in the sixth.

Ramon Hernandez hit two home runs for the Orioles on Thursday night, giving him six homers against the Yankees since Sept. 1. According to Elias, it’s the most home runs that any player in major league history has hit against the Yankees in one calendar month.

A surgically removed growth behind Royals Kansas City manager Buddy Bell’s left tonsil was cancerous, his doctor said Thursday. The biopsy revealed that tissue surrounding the growth, however, was free of cancer cells. The team made the announcement during Kansas City’s game at Minnesota. Bell, who is resting at his home in Chandler, Ariz., and won’t manage again this season, will meet with doctors soon to determine any possible further treatment.

The Astros had only three hits in their win. It was the second time this month that Houston won despite producing three or fewer hits. They beat the Mets on Sept. 3 with one hit.

So much for the Coors Park humidor. In addition to the 30 runs scored yesterday — the most at Coors Field in four years — the teams combined for 33 hits, using 44 players — 16 of which were pitchers. The 19 runs were the most by the Dodgers in five years. The 19-run outburst pushed the Dodgers’ runs-per-game average above 5.0 for the season (it’s now at 5.08). Los Angeles has not averaged five or more runs per game in any season since 1962.

The Dodgers’ sweep of the Rockies brought their season mark against the last-place Rockies to a lopsided 15-4.

Francisco Rodriguez tied Bryan Harvey’s franchise record with his career-high 46th save in a 2-0 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night.

In an open letter to season-ticket holders Thursday, the Mariners confirmed general manager Bill Bavasi and manager Mike Hargrove will return for the 2007 season.

Law officers and museum officials are looking for a bronze bust of former Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett that is missing from the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. The bust stood outside the Springfield museum as part of a “legends walkway” with about 15 other busts of athletes and three full-size statues, museum operations director Marty Willadsen said Thursday.

THT Stats

Access all of THT’s stats here…

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Dave Studeman was called a "national treasure" by Rob Neyer. Seriously. Follow his sporadic tweets @dastudes.